Community Voices: Hands off my tips, $15 for all workers

Ginger Jentzen, former executive director of 15 Now Minnesota, speaks at a Sept. 29 press conference at City Hall introducing a growing coalition of the Fight for $15 movement. Photo by Cristeta Boarini.

Spoiler alert: I’m a former tipped worker with deep respect for the service industry and a leader in the fight for $15. But even I was taken aback by the Minnesota Restaurant Association (MRA) sponsored “Pathway to $15” campaign, dedicated to exclude tipped workers from a $15 per hour minimum wage. To be clear, the MRA is no friend to workers. They opposed paid sick time ordinances in Minneapolis and St. Paul, opposed the statewide minimum wage of $9.50 and are actively campaigning for “pre-emption” at the state level.

Don’t be fooled by the grassroots feel of “Pathway to $15.” In a recent article, Dan Mcelroy, President and CEO of the MRA said, “We are building a Pathway to $15 coalition and have engaged the Lockridge Grindal Nauen firm to help us with lobbying, grassroots engagement, public relations and other aspects of a bold and comprehensive campaign.” If that law firm sounds familiar, it should. It’s the same firm City Hall hired to block $15 from voters last year in a lawsuit backed by the Chamber of Commerce.

The Pathway to $15 bases itself on scare tactics designed to leverage the genuine concerns of restaurant workers into opposition against $15 by claiming raising wages erodes tipping. There is no mention of Minneapolis’ minimum wage study, which showed that $15 per hour for every worker, phased-in by 2022, would cause minimal increases to business and costs that would be distributed over the entire local economy. There’s no mention that a tip-penalty is currently illegal in Minnesota, and if passed in Minneapolis, it would open the space to a statewide tip penalty, something the MRA has been lobbying for years.

Tip penalty increases the risk of workplace harassment by forcing tipped workers to rely on the goodwill of customers to earn a living wage. In states with a tip penalty, women restaurant workers are twice as likely to tolerate sexual harassment on the job as women in states without a tip penalty, like Minnesota. Some Minneapolis restaurants have even been caught playing up this dynamic, encouraging “dress codes” like above the knee pleated skirts with tall socks, etc.

There is discrimination based on race, body type, gender identity, etc., in restaurants, often highlighted between the front and back of house. But the mistake some restaurant owners make is focusing on the process of tipping, rather than overturning the oppressive social norms that cause this discrimination. The owners call for schemes that penalize tipped workers as a form of social justice, but let’s be honest – if restaurant owners wanted to genuinely confront workplace discrimination, they could welcome unionization drives, which allow workers to address these issues without retaliation from management.

The MRA’s proposal for tip-penalty is almost impossible to enforce. They propose that a portion of a worker’s’ tips count towards wages until they hit $15 per hour. But this would change hour by hour and would require a complicated system of tracking. At best, it puts workers in the precarious situation of negotiating their compensation with management on a daily basis, requiring all restaurants to have a robust human resources department that adds cost. And at worst opens the door to intimidation and wage theft.

The economics of a “tip penalty” favor restaurant owners, not tipped workers. Here’s an example. Because of differences in minimum wage, and where there is a tip penalty, tipped workers in Oakland make a $15 wage before tips, tipped workers in St. Paul make a $9.50 wage before tips and tipped workers in Dallas make a $2.13 wage before tips. Now, say a table of four people walk into a restaurant in each city and each order $10 worth of food, or $40 in total.

The service and food are good, and the party of four tips 20 percent, or roughly $8. The server in Oakland walks away with $23.00 ($15 per hour in wages + $8 in tips), the server in St. Paul walks away with $17.50 ($9.50 per hour in wages + $8 in tips) and the server in Dallas walks away with $10.13 ($2.13 per hour + $8 tips). Clearly a tip penalty did not help the server in Dallas.

Also we should be clear that for every tipped worker at a sleek downtown establishment, there is a valet parking driver standing outside, a barista at Starbucks, a server working overnight at Perkins or Denny’s and a delivery driver working for Davanni’s. These workers have everything to lose from a tip penalty.

I know the challenges of the restaurant industry. Many servers base their livelihood on tips, whether going toward rent or a mortgage, car payment, childcare costs, student debt. I recognize that many restaurants feel squeezed. But I don’t accept the Minnesota Restaurant Association’s solution to penalize servers. So the next time your boss blames $15, remember: tip-penalty helps restaurant owners, $15 per hour plus tips helps all workers, including servers.

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2 thoughts on “Community Voices: Hands off my tips, $15 for all workers”

Interesting article! Working myself as a dutch citizen in the tourist industry (in Europe) I am very aware about dependency on tips, since payment in general is rather low for the workers in this sector. Actually, I hate to work for tips and try very much not to do so. It’s just feels very alienating for myself, for the quality of my work, but also in relation to my coworkers or between them when the focus is on tips. It feels much better to get a decent fixed payment and work enjoying the pleasure of the work in itself!!! If costs and wages are fixed or set on forehand the focus can be further social, in relation to the client and between coworkers as well. It should be a big step forward to abandon the whole tipping system, what is only possible If workers in these jobs get a corresponding increase in their wages. The demand for 15 dollar minimum helps to go that way. Tipping penalty is the oppositie of this.

Please explain why bringing food to me warrants a wage that approaches what we pay to someone with a significant amount of training.
My spouse – an attorney – earns $25/hour after six years of post-secondary education. I’m not at all opposed to the concept of a living wage, but when do we start to accept that some jobs require specialized skills and should be rewarded accordingly?
Nobody wants to ask this question for fear of appearing cruel and uncaring.
If you’re making $15/hour plus tips, the economies of my household and your employer will probably dictate that we eat out about one-tenth as often as we do now. So how does that help you?

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